The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India, established as a statutory institution under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016. It operates under the Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. Its core purpose is the harmonious development of standardization, marking, and quality certification for goods, articles, processes, systems, and services.
The BIS is the successor to the Indian Standards Institution (ISI), which was created in 1947 to ensure quality control and competitive efficiency during India's industrialization. The BIS itself was formally established on April 1, 1987, under the repealed Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986. The current BIS Act, 2016, which replaced the 1986 Act, came into force on October 12, 2017, to expand the scope beyond goods to include services and systems.
The mechanism of BIS involves formulating Indian Standards and administering certification schemes like the ISI Mark. The BIS Act, 2016, empowers the Central Government to mandate certification for any goods or services deemed necessary for public interest, health, safety, or national security. Key provisions include the mandatory Hallmarking of precious metal articles and allowing simplified conformity assessment schemes, such as self-declaration. BIS is a founder member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and aligns its activities with the WTO-TBT Agreement. Recently, the Bureau of Indian Standards (Conformity Assessment) Amendment Regulations, 2026, introduced stricter compliance measures like mandatory advance annual fee payment and clearer suspension rules.